


Don’t look back, now.

by fribbletastic



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Let’s Go Break Things!, My first fic, Octo Expansion, Splatoon AU, also teen rating cause it’s impossible to write pearl swear-less, i don’t know how to tag things, i guess?, i refuse to end this sad, may add more tags later, the gaygents travel together, there’s gonna be crying, this is an OE au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-08-19 02:48:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16525880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fribbletastic/pseuds/fribbletastic
Summary: Heyo! This is my first fic and it’s Splatoon! Basically it’s an AU of Octo Expansion, but Agent 3 and Agent 8 travel together through the metro. I haven’t done this before, so I expect to make typos and such, point them out if you see them! This is gonna be a wild ride. A very gay wild ride. Notes at the end of chapters.





	1. Prologue: Falling

In the somewhat distant Inkopolis, other inklings would be milling about, laughing and eating, testing their skills in turf wars, shop hunting for the latest gear, and preparing for the upcoming Splatfest. A bunch of teenagers having a good old gang war over the texture of orange juice. But not Agent 3, not today. Captain Cuttlefish’s radio equipment had been picking up weird signals from below Mt. Nantai, and according to the Captain, there had been a very large and very dangerous octarian base below the mountain in the past. Which, of course, meant that 3 was stuck on a top-secret lengthy expedition following a signal that probably meant nothing.

She shook her head, telling herself to have more faith in the Captain. He’d kept himself alive for over a hundred years so he probably knew what he was doing when it came to this kind of stuff. At the same time, these abandoned octarian bases were full of old broken technology. It was most likely just one of the outdated communication machines on the fritz sending out a distorted old message or something. Of course I have to search through a creepy old base while everyone else plans a giant party. She pushed the snarky thought back. She could sass all she wanted when she was done, but she was in work mode. An investigation is an investigation, and 3 wasn’t about to slack off even if she felt the whole thing unnecessary and time consuming.

And so here she was, walking along a metal grate pathway with the Captain at her side, held up only by rusty chains in the pitch black darkness elevated above who knows what, armed with only her trusty Hero Shot, her communicator, and a flashlight. Neither talked, they needed to be quiet on this mission. Not to mention it felt almost like being too loud would summon some kind of danger to the immediate area. Calling the place creepy would be a massive understatement. The only light in the entire place came from 3’s flashlight, and everything was covered with a thick layer of dust. A haunting empty silence filled the whole base, save for the occasional clang of some piece of metal hitting the ground, as the base seemed to be falling apart just from 3’s mere existence in the perimeter. It felt to her like she was walking on some sort of preserved ground, like time had stopped in there. She tried to ignore it, but the constantly creepy atmosphere was getting on her nerves.

After walking for another minute or two, the grate path just stopped. There was no railing on the end, it was like the pathway had been cut clean in half. She moved to the edge of the path, shining the flashlight down. Below the edge there appeared to be some sort of platform made out of wooden boards. The platform had a metal frame around the edge, and she couldn’t exactly tell what the platform was supported by, but she could see another few grated pathways leading up to it.She heard the Captain move to look over the edge as well. She couldn’t help but feel a momentary concern that he would fall off, he seemed to be always shaking even when standing still, but after a moment it became clear he would be fine.

Before she could get a clear look at the platform, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Shocked, she switched off the flashlight quickly and froze in place, listening. The footsteps weren’t coming along the path she was on, thank cod, but they were still heading in her direction. She soon realized they were heading for the platform, and wrapped her cape around herself to cover anything that may stand out if whoever was approaching had night vision goggles. After another second, it became clear the footsteps were urgent, the person was running.

They reached the platform. 3 recognized the telltale glowing purple dots, likely coming from the lenses of ominous metal goggles. Octoling. She felt the Captain nudge her. Looking to her side, she realized he was frantically signaling for her to attack. She nodded, superjumping down onto the wooden platform. Upon landing she immediately regretted her decision to jump down, the boards nearly broke below her feet just from her landing. They seemed to be made from the same kind of wood as the storage crates, and they also seemed to be deteriorating. She might as well try to walk on bread, the boards were so soft. Oh, the octoling. 3 whipped her head back up, having left herself open to attack in her surprise at the boards. However the octoling hadn’t moved. She could only really see the purple lights from it’s goggles, but something seemed off about it. A sudden whirring noise cut through the air, startling the inkling. A light filtered onto the platform through a window elsewhere in the base, which apparently somehow got some kind of power source. It was immediately clear the light wasn’t the only machine that had turned on, distant static and buzzing floated through the air, accompanying the occasional dirty lightbulb farther on.

“Agent 3!” The Captain’s yell cut through the air. “She must have come to turn the machines back on! Get her!” He yelled again, pointing to the octoling, who had began to turn and try to run away from his commotion. 3’s reflexes kicked in, and she darted forward after it, grabbing her hero shot and shooting in front of the octoling, causing it to have to turn sharply to avoid the shots. As the octoling turned, it pulled out an octoshot. The fight was on. 3 noticed something different right away though. The octoling’s attacks and retreats felt strangely loose and unorganized, unlike the unsettlingly correlated accuracy of the soldiers she encountered on normal missions. Soon, 3 ran out of ink. She went to submerge and refill- only to realize the battle had taken place on wooden boards. Most of the ink had fallen through the cracks, and what hadn’t was either absorbed into the board or too shallow to submerge into. She looked up to her opponent, and realized it was out of ink too. Then, as her eyes adjusted to the dim, filthy lighting, she realized what had seemed off. Eyes. The octoling’s goggles weren’t over her eyes, but had been lifted up and rested on her tentacles.

Her eyes? Green. Intense green. She was staring right at 3, her gaze blazing and snapping with some sort of intensity. Determination perhaps, possibly frustration. 3 decided that this was definitely unusual and she didn’t like it. All the octolings she ever fought always had most of their face covered by the giant masks, and although the masks were creepy, they were emotionless. This almost seemed scarier in comparison. She realized that while she had been staring the intensity had left the unusual octoling’s eyes, and she had put down her weapon. What? Was the octoling trying to call a truce? 3 opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the sound of someone landing behind her, as well as a foreboding creaking and splintering sound. She quickly realized what had happened, the Captain had jumped to her! And only then was 3 noticing how much the fight with the octoling had messed up the boards. They really needed to get off the platform. Now.

  
“Seek and destroy.” The voices that suddenly cut through the air were cold, and they seemed to come from multiple directions at once. In the corner of her eye 3 saw the unusual octoling start to panic. Looking up into the limited light, 3 couldn’t make out anything more than silhouettes, but she realized the sources of the voices were on the paths above her.

It happened in just a few seconds. Two superjump signals, and a charger shot that 3 just barely managed to dodge. She didn’t know who landed, all she could make out in the moment was a roller crashing against the boards on one side, a slosher on the other. Teal ink. A sickening glow. And just like that, the boards cracked, the ground giving out beneath 3’s feet as she fell down, down, down. A drop of the weird teal ink hit her face, it stung for some reason. However the amount of splinters in her hands and legs as she was falling drew her attention away from thinking about it. She thought she felt something grab onto her cape, but it didn’t really register either. The fact that she would probably die when she landed was taking up her mind.

\- - - - -

2 years earlier...

\- - - - -

The octoling sat above the stage, clinging to a railing on a ceiling platform as if for her life. Below her, everything was falling to pieces before her eyes. She would never forget how lucky she had been to have that cod forsaken gun pointed at her and still stand. She’d escaped from the agent’s sight just a few minutes ago, scrambling for her life across the elevated pathways hanging from the ceiling, not stopping until she reached her current spot, and she was still tired and full of adrenaline. Agent 3, a lone inkling, a single squid, had managed to ruin the hopes of every last octarian in the span of a month. And now, they were here to finish the job as they slowly backed Octavio into a corner. Loud music was blaring through the speakers, glow sticks and lights were flying over the crowd below as if watching their last defense fall apart was a celebration. However something unusual happened. The music cut to static, and when it came back, it was different. So, so different. As the sound reached the platform, the octoling felt like she had been suddenly yanked into a thick fog, and then slammed into a wall, threatening to cause her fall from the precarious position she was sitting in. For a second it almost felt like she couldn’t see, and then she saw. Oh, she saw.

She saw a bright light. Warm, stable, soft. Safe. A far cry from the multicolored mayhem of the neon party lights flashing around her. The octoling saw it then, even in the midst of the chaos. A future, the surface. The heavenly melody, the tune echoing through her mind. It whispered a promise, a confirmation of one’s greatest hopes. For a moment, joy floated in the air. She could hear the crowd below cheering and dancing, captured by the tune. And just as soon as it came, it was gone. As was their leader. The inkling sent Octavio crashing back into his own machine, a loud cracking noise signaling a malfunction on the inside. The machine exploded, sending him flying into the air. The inkling superjumped, snatching him mid-fall and vanishing, leaving nothing but destruction in her wake. A thick silence clouded the air, and then a faint buzzing of music. The buzzing seemed to spike, growing louder by the second, the music loud and unbearable. The octoling started shaking, fumbling around and trying not to release the scream building in her throat. The noise felt like rocks grinding inside her ears, she wanted it to stop, it hurt, what was it? She reached to cover her ears with her hands, but instead only felt the familiar metal mask covering them. In a desperate move, she yanked the mask off, tossing it at her feet and grabbing her ears so hard her claws dug into the skin at the edge of her face.

It stopped. For a moment she thought she had just blocked it out when she covered her ears, but as she slowly removed her hands it became clear that wasn’t the case. No music was playing. The other thing that became clear was that the octolings in the crowd below were still having this issue as their screeching reached her ears. She could see them, shaking and yelling and running and crashing into things, some of them tearing off their masks and trying to cover their ears like she did. But there wasn’t any music. A chill ran down her spine as a thought crept into the back of her mind. She looked back to her own mask, now on the ground. She couldn’t remember the last time she had taken it off. Even now, not having it on her head felt weird and a little uncomfortable. Lifting it up cautiously, she slowly placed it back on her head. She immediately regretted that, yanking it off once more. The horrible noise seemed to be coming from the mask. What was happening? Was that...always there?

She didn’t want to get rid of the mask, but didn’t trust it either, so she just set it on her head, resting on her tentacles. She wanted to leave. She wanted to run and never stop until she found that warm light. That sense of safety. It would be hers, and nobody would stop her. No inkling, no octarian, no creepy mask, nothing. And so, she did.  
And she didn’t look back.


	2. Train station?

Agent 3 didn’t exactly know what just happened. She couldn’t remember. Whatever it was, it sure did a number on her because she could feel a hundred tiny cuts and scrapes on her skin. As she shifted into consciousness, she became aware of how cold the floor was, the dust and grime that she was laying in, the beams reaching up to the ceiling, and the musty smell of the underground, almost like a subway station. “AHOY!” The Captain’s yell felt like a dagger had been dropped onto her head, piercing her skull. “Agent 3! We’re not done fighting yet! Enemy in sight!” What? 

With a groan, she moved upwards a little faster than was comfortable. Scanning the area, she saw they were in a large dark room, definitely underground. The walls were made of concrete, and rusted metal beams reached to the ceiling. Caution tape was hung from beam to beam like party streamers, but instead of confetti, dust and dirt fell from the ceiling in periodic small clouds. The ground was covered by large, dirty colored tiles, and the layer of dirt and broken wires over them didn’t make them appear any better than they already did. There was very little lighting, and there was dirt and rubble everywhere. _Where… am I?_ 3 didn’t have the slightest idea where this could possibly be. She hated not having the slightest idea where this could possibly be. Not knowing what was going on was just about her least favorite thing in the world. “Agent 3, did you hear me?” Oh, right. Looking to where the Captain was pointing, she saw an octoling out cold on the tile floor. Not a very comfortable spot. For some reason, they had no goggles- oh. Oh. She started to remember. She’d been following that signal, and found that octoling, and then... something? They had been attacked by something. And then... she got the feeling more time had passed, but she couldn’t remember anything between then and now.

Strangely, the octoling seemed to be making some kind of noise. Humming maybe? Agent 3 tried to listen closer, and... was that what she thought it was? No, most likely not. Although, the Captain had claimed… but there was no way it was true... Between her thoughts and her hurting head, she failed to notice the Captain making his way over to the octoling until he was already standing by the unconscious girl, yelling at her. Oh boy.

~???~

Pale summer moonlight shimmers on the seafloor.  
An octopus, unaware that dawn will bring capture,  
Rests within a trap, dreaming fleeting dreams...

Wow. What a nice time to take a nap. The octoling lay on the floor, and she wanted to never move again. Unconsciousness called her with a sweet lullaby, which at some point was replaced by the sound of an old guy yelling in her face. Who was he? She squinted her eyes open, trying to focus on anything through the blurry lense of exhaustion. Well, he was definitely an old guy. Looked like a… cuttling? He had the ears, but it was sorta hard to tell. “Xs dqg dw hp, brx odcb zkliioh-zkdiioh! Wklv iljkw lvq’w ryhu bhw! Suhsduh iru d urbdo zkrrslq’!” ...What? She could tell he was speaking in a language she didn’t understand, but… Wait, where was she? How did she get here? ...She couldn’t remember, not even the slightest detail. In fact, panic started to build up as she realized she couldn’t remember anything at all. Nothing. Not where she came from, not where this place was, not who she was, and definitely not who this guy was. “Ajhqw 3! Khos ph rxw ryhu khuh!” The old guy yelled to... wow. That sure is unmistakably an inkling. Standing right there. She couldn’t remember why, but she felt a deep association with the fact that she was probably expected to not encounter an inkling ever, in her life, but apparently no, this was a thing that was happening.

~3~

“Captain... please stop yelling...” Agent 3 said slowly. Her head couldn’t handle his voice. She looked down to the octoling, who had begun an attempt to get up from the floor. She should probably attack, but... truthfully, she had absolutely no idea what to do in this situation. She could clearly see the panic that was flooding into the girl’s eyes, and wondered if she was hurt, or just afraid of her and the Captain, or something else... It was most likely some of all three. This octoling had both taken off her goggles, and tried to surrender or something when they encountered her before the fall. Not only that, she seemed to move and think on her own, not in the robotic manner of Octavio’s control. There was nothing precise or sinister about the way this girl was currently failing to stand up. She had never seen an octoling doing any of those. Ever. At the same time, this was an octoling, right here, who they didn’t know, and who had showed up along with their mysterious attackers. 

“Who... are you?” Oh, she started talking in Octarian! Agent 3 had learned how to speak the language from the Captain during her years as an agent, as she’d found many old papers on missions covered in Octarian writing. She hadn’t given that much thought to them during her first run-around mission, but afterwards she’d found the images interesting and the Captain jumped on the opportunity to teach somebody else something he knew. However, the octoling probably couldn’t understand anything the Captain had just said to her. Probably a good thing, it wouldn’t have made her feel particularly safer. “Where is this place? Who...” The octoling stopped partway through her sentence, looking around worriedly. 3 took a moment to respond, having to think for a second before the right words for the sentence came to her mind. “The platform we were on broke. We fell, I assume we landed down here. I don’t recognize this place.” She eventually answered. “I’m Agent 3. You’ve... probably heard of me.” _Not for good reasons in your case…_ “Who are you?“ The octoling paused for a moment, looking confused. “I can’t... don’t...” She turned to stare into 3’s eyes. That terrifying stare again. “I’m not sure.”

“...What do you mean you’re not sure? Do you- ...not remember?” 3 asked. The other girl shook her head. Okay, this was getting worse by the second. If 3 wasn’t out of her comfort zone before she certainly was now. _No no, this is fine. We can work with this._ “Well, we should probably start with finding out where we are then. Maybe you’ll remember after your head has cleared a bit?” She suggested, although she felt that unlikely. 3 may have needed a second to recall what happened, but _she_ didn’t remember anything at all after they woke up, which didn’t seem like a good sign. 

“Well… we should probably stick together, safety in numbers or whatever, y’know?” 3 asked, trying to lighten the mood a little bit. She offered the shaky octoling a hand. The other paused for a bit, staring at her outstretched hand as if running some sort of calculations, before cautiously taking it and allowing the other to help them up. “Okay.” The second she was on her feet, the Captain, having heard their conversation and switched to speaking in Octarian himself yelled again: “Temporary truce! Well, now that you’re up, onwards we go! C’mon!”, while walking towards the end of the open space, where she noticed what looked like subway entry gates. She and the octoling followed the Captain through the one open window. It reminded 3 of when she first gained the ability to shift between kid and squid, she had always loved sneaking onto trains by slipping through the cracks under the glass panels. Sometimes she’d be gone for an entire day because the train she sneaked onto took her unreasonably far away, and then she’d have to repeat the process to get onto another train back home. Not the safest activity, nor the most legal one, but at the time she was a bored 14 year old. 

As it turned out, the area had smelled like a subway station because that’s exactly what it was. A train was stopped beyond the gates, although the station they stood in was clearly abandoned. There were lights on in the train, but they flickered every couple seconds, and there clearly hadn’t been anybody on it in a while, as dust coated the floor and seats, and there was the occasional piece of trash on the ground. The octoling stepped onto the train without hesitation, looking around on the inside, while 3 followed more cautiously. “There’s no one here, but it looks like there used to be.” 3 said. “There’s even some graffiti on the walls. It looks like a regular abandoned subway…” The octoling turned to 3, squinting. “...subway?” “...Uh… do octarians not have subways or something?” 3 asked. She only received a blank stare. 

Before she could ask anything else, the octoling’s ears perked as she whipped around to face the other end of the subway car, seeming to have heard something. On the other end of the car, the door was opened. The lights from the train lit up a few feet of the tunnel and tracks, and then it faded to darkness. _That’s not creepy. Nope. Not at all._ After a moment, her ears fell and she took a step forwards. 3 on the other hand, was more than happy to stay in the car where she could see. But as the Captain stepped next to her, she could tell that wasn’t what was going to happen. “Well, I looked around where we woke up, but this appears to be the only way out! We’d best hop to it, if there ain’t another way!” The octoling, without saying a word in response, walked to the end of the car and hopped out the back door and onto the tracks.

3 prepared to follow her, but was halted by the Captain. She looked down to face him. “Agent 3, I’ve concluded this place isn’t on any of our maps. I’ve been looking into possible octarian bases for years, and scouted out every subway system in and around Inkopolis. I’d have known about an abandoned station like this. We’ve got no idea what we’re getting into, so stay sharp! Keep your guard up! We’re gonna have to be careful and attentive if we’re ever gonna get to the bottom of this.” 3 paused a moment, before nodding seriously. “We’d better follow that octoling now, lest she gets suspicious. Whatever happened to us, she’s part of it, it’d be wise to keep her around.” He concluded, before moving to the end of the car and hopping out himself. 3 followed last. 

~???~ 

As she hopped off the train, the octoling took a few steps before stopping to wait for the others. After a moment, they followed. Although she probably should have been suspicious of how long they took, she was confused about too many other things already to worry about it. As she and the other two walked down the track, the light from the train car was left behind as they were engulfed by darkness. The silence came to an abrupt halt as the heel of her boot caught on one of the wooden planks of the train tracks, causing her to lose her balance with a yell. The inkling- who’s name she’d already forgotten- swiftly caught her by the wrist, stopping her from hitting the ground. She was shorter than the octoling, but was clearly just as strong. 

“Careful! I think these planks are old, they’re full of dents and cracks…” The inkling paused while she steadied herself again, before letting go of her wrist. The octoling huffed in frustration, regretting it a moment later as she heard the inkling take a step back. _I didn’t mean that at you! I meant it at the shoes!_ She didn’t even remember putting on those stupid heels. The lack of light was annoying, she couldn’t even see the two walking with her! Wait, how did the inkling know what was up with the boards? Could she… _see._ She noticed the inkling’s eyes could be seen pretty clearly even in the dark, and were completely dilated. Inklings weren’t like octolings. But, they were similar too. Why wouldn’t she be able to see? She squinted, trying to make out shapes in the darkness. Then, it seemed like something in her brain clicked, and the shapes took form, rocks, the track, the dents in the walls. Weirdly, they all had a pink tint to their color. 

~3~ 

“Uh. Are you… what are you doing?...” 3 asked slowly.

“Huh?”  
The octoling turned around, and that’s… hm. Well.  
At the tips of her tentacles, where in the light they had faded to a more peachy red color, they were now glowing, the little rings glowing the brightest. And where her pupils had been green with that little dark shape like an infinity symbol, they were now entirely glowing white, with only a green ring around them. This glow stick display was casting pink light around the immediate area, causing 3’s eyes to become a bit less dilated as less light had to be reflected.

And, yeah. This octoling seemed to really like defying all of 3’s previous experience with them, didn’t she? 3 had never seen one do anything like that before. As a matter of fact 3 had never seen any creature do anything like that before. She knew they probably could, but hadn’t seen it. “Is something wrong?” Oh. She’d asked the octoling what was going on a moment ago. “Um, you’re… glowing? Like, your eyes and tentacles lit up.” The octoling took one of her tentacles in her hand and held it before her eyes. “Oh yeah.” She let go, turning back to the tracks. “Let’s go.” 

That… wasn’t the response you were supposed to have to finding out you were glowing. They continued walking along, not saying a word. 3 was… relatively sure this wasn’t normal? She’d fought octolings in the dark before. Not the pitch dark, sure, but if they glowed on the regular she’d have seen it, right? Octavio wouldn’t have forced them to stop glowing, it seemed entirely in his nature to want his entire army to look like living party lights… right? Was she overthinking this? Probably. “Do you… always glow?” 3 asked finally. “I don’t remember.” The octoling responded shortly. Oh, right! She wasn’t going to be getting any answers about anything this octoling had been doing when she found her because _she couldn’t remember._ 3 would still have no idea what was going on. Awesome. 

3 decided thinking about how her companion was randomly glowing was better than dwelling on the frustration of their current situation. So think about it she did. As they walked on, it became almost calming. In the creepy silent darkness of the tunnel, the warm colored light was welcome. And practical! Because 3 could now see much clearer! Yeah! 

After a while, they moved around a curve in the tunnel and a light could be seen at the end. The octoling’s rings slowly stopped glowing the further into the light they moved. The tracks kinda just… were absorbed into the cement floor beneath them, like it grew up and over them. Eventually some other materials like tile, boards, and stone slabs were also slapped on top because why not? There were small identical boxes stacked up taller than her or the octoling, and both hanging signs and scratched up wall-painted signs were all over the filthy walls. “What in the devilfish is this place? Proceed with caution…” The Captain warned. The hallway onwards was blocked by a vault. “We’re gonna have to find a key to open that.” 3 said, and the octoling nodded in agreement. 3 looked around and quickly noticed a deactivated ink rail, right next to a weight activated switch which the octoling immediately stepped on. Yeah sure, just do that. We’re in a creepy abandoned subway full of weird broken signs and machines but sure, hop right on that lever without knowing what it does. Luckily, the inkrail just turned on and the switch didn’t set the room on fire.

The octoling hopped into the inkrail, swimming down before hopping off on the other end. 3 took a second to shift her ink color to pink before following. Apparently the other girl loved stepping on circular unidentified switches because before 3 could even fully examine the second switch she was already standing on it. A glass cylinder came out of the ground and surrounded the octoling instantly. 3 panicked. Thinking the other had just been caught in some kind of trap, she banged her fist against the glass, but it had no effect. She reached for her hero shot, ready to smash the glass with it, but then the glass lowered and the octoling turned to face her. “It gave me a gun!!” She exclaimed, showing it to 3 with a cheerful grin. It was a splattershot junior. _What the hell?!_ 3 didn’t know which to be put off more by: the fact that the octoling was so happy to receive a gun, or the fact a splattershot junior got down here. The other girl whirled around and started shooting the wooden crates past the weird glass machine, grinning like a child who’d been handed a cookie. That’s… a little weird. 3 hopped over the machine as she passed. She already had her hero shot to use, and she didn’t trust it. 

~???~ 

This felt natural. The weapon in her hands. If there was anything she knew she must have done in her past, it was this. She didn’t remember it, but muscle memory clearly did. As she broke the crates and ran forwards into the new space, she felt alive. Because she knew something about herself now! She had something to hold onto. Sure, it was just “the gun lady” but that was much better than nothing at all. It was a clue. 

“Being an octarian and all… you sure this place doesn’t look familiar?” She heard the ‘Captain’ as the inkling referred to him, call. “Cap, she lost her memory, remember?” “Well it couldn’t hurt to check, right?” This place was very strange. There were crates, but they looked to be made of some type of thin yellow glass, and had a strange pattern on them. There were also yellow balloons floating through the air with the same pattern. She quickly busted the crates, and a balloon that was unfortunate enough to be nearby. Yes! She spotted a balloon fish in the center of the room, and set it off, causing it to destroy the large amount of crates around it. Which was… yes. Big ink explosion. That was a cool looking thing she just did. 

While she was thinking about that, she heard the inkling move to the right behind her. As she turned, she saw her hop onto a dash ramp, and fly right onto a second dash ramp, and land on a crate. She then jumped off the crate onto a ledge where she activated a ride rail, which crossed above the octoling. The ride rail ended on a small platform where another one began, so the inkling threw a splat bomb ahead of herself so that the second rail activated before she got there, and she hopped right from the first to the second one. It played out like an action movie scene. And it highlighted another thing about the inkling she hadn’t noticed before: she was wearing a cape. And it cluttered dramatically in the air behind her the entire time, adding to the effect. _Wow, way to 1-up my cool moment._

She heard the sound of crates breaking, and then the inkling calling out “Key!!!” Excitedly. From cool action movie star to kid finding scavenger hunt item in 8 seconds. She haphazardly tossed the key down from the platform, and the octoling hopped up in the air and caught it. Yeah. You can’t take her cool moment away. She’ll just win it back. “Let’s go to the vault!” She called up to the inkling, before turning and swimming back towards the inkrail. As she passed the machine that gave her a gun, the glass shot up around her again. When it dropped, the gun was gone. It took it! A devilish scam! She huffed in annoyance, before moving across the inkrail and back to the vault anyways. Without her first hint of the past.

~3~

3 hopped off the inkrail just in time to see the octoling turn the key in the vault lock. Instead of an item, or a launchpad, or anything usually kept in vaults, it just opened the path further into the tunnel. Which was dark, and covered in posters and graffiti. Wonderful. “This looks a little sketchy, but… we’re gonna have to check it out.” The Captain muttered, walking ahead of them. The octoling followed. 3 looked back to the room. It wasn’t a station. There were lights. There were working ride rails and balloons. What was it?

She didn’t have time to ponder, the other two were already moving ahead into the tunnel, so she quickly followed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! This took a while because directly after I posted the first chapter midterms started throwing bricks at me and then it was the holidays! So I’m gonna say right now that updates won’t be exactly fast with this fic, but I’m gonna try and keep them pretty frequent!
> 
> Also, I’ve removed the GDoV warning because the reason it was there is,, not gonna show up for a while and I don’t see the point of having it if the story doesn’t contain that yet. I’ll add it back when it becomes necessary, along with a warning at the start of the chapter and some kind of markers so that people can jump from one to the next and over the scene. 
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoyed reading! You’re welcome to point out grammatical errors cause having to refer to a character as “the octoling” the entire chapter probably caused a few.

**Author's Note:**

> Down they go...


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